The present invention relates to a recording medium containing information for authenticating a particular individual, and more particularly to a technique for preventing forgery of authenticating information.
As recording media containing information for authenticating the identity of particular individuals, such as individual persons, there are various identification cards, such as drivers"" licenses, passports, and employee identification cards, including a diversity of certificates of authenticity. These recording media are objects made of paper or the like on which character or photographic information for individual authentication is recorded by printing or handwriting so as to allow direct visual recognition.
In most cases, information for individual authentication comprises information identifying a particular individual and information certified therefor. For instance, in a passport, a photograph of the face of an individual person is attached as information identifying the individual person, and the name, address, date of birth, nationality, etc. of the individual person are entered as information certified therefor.
In authentication, an individual is identified by identification information recorded in a recording medium, and then certification information concerning the identified individual, which is also recorded in the recording medium, is confirmed for the identified individual. In the case of authentication of a passport, a certifying officer of an immigration/emigration bureau at an airport checks facial features of a holder of the passport against a photograph of the face attached in the passport, and if the holder of the passport is identified, the certifying officer confirms the name, address, date of birth, nationality, etc. recorded in the passport for the holder thereof.
Sometimes, various identification cards, such as drivers"" licenses, passports and employee identification cards, including a diversity of certificates of authenticity, may be counterfeited for an illegal purpose. A passport, for example, may be forged for the purpose of illegal immigration, smuggling, or passage of a criminal. Therefore, there is a social demand for ensuring prevention of forgery of these identification cards and certificates.
Although various methods for preventing forgery have been devised heretofore, no satisfactory countermeasure against forgery has been realized yet. It is rather difficult to detect a forged passport containing a replaced photograph of a person""s face, for example, giving rise to considerable problems.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a recording medium containing information for authenticating an individual and an authentication system using the same for enabling effective prevention of forgery of information for individual identification, such as a photograph of a person""s face in a passport.
In accomplishing this object of the present invention and according to one aspect thereof, there is provided an authentication system comprising:
a recording medium issuing apparatus including,
means for generating cryptographic information by encrypting a feature value usable for identification of each individual to be authenticated with a recording medium, using a private key based on public key cryptography, and
means for recording the thus generated cryptographic information and certification information concerning the individual onto the recording medium; and
a recording medium authenticating apparatus including,
means for decrypting the cryptographic information recorded on the recording medium using a public key paired with the private key to decode the feature value usable for identification of the individual to be authenticated with the recording medium.
In accordance with the authentication system mentioned above, as identification information of a particular individual to be authenticated with a recording medium, a feature value of the individual encrypted using a predetermined private key is recorded instead of a mere feature image of the individual represented by a photograph or the like. At the time of authentication, the feature value decoded using a public key paired with the predetermined private key employed for encryption, which is usable for identification of the particular individual to be authenticated with the recording medium, is compared with a feature value of each would-be certified individual. Unless the private key paired with the public key is known, it is extremely difficult to counterfeit feature value data of the individual, which is data encrypted using the private key and decrypted using the public key. Further, it is also very difficult to derive the private key from the public key or the feature value encrypted using the private key. Therefore, the present invention makes it possible to provide a recording medium for authentication which can effectively prevent forgery of information identifying an individual.
In the present invention, the individual may be a person and a feature of the individual to be used for identification thereof may be a physical feature of the person. In an application where a physical feature of a person is used for identification thereof, an image thereof to be authenticated with the recording medium may be applicable as a feature value thereof to be authenticated with the recording medium.